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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
T For Torture
pretender_gurl
McCarthy Household
Dover, DE
April 13, 1994
19:57
"Sam, we can't just take a child!" Evelyn McCarthy cried.
"What do you want me to do? Take her back to the people who did this to her?" Sam replied.
"There must be some kind of child services office that we can contact."
"Oh, that's great, Evelyn. I can just see that conversation now. 'Yes, ma'am. She was a subject at a secret organization where she was trained to perform covert simulations.' They'd send me to the nuthouse, Evelyn!" Sam said, throwing his hands up in the air.
Evelyn watched as her husband paced the room with his hands on his hips, pushing his suit coat back behind him. She sighed and peeked through the door where Jira was lying on the extra bed in Lucy's room. She looked so small and helpless that Evelyn's resolve melted away.
"This means a lot to you, doesn't it?" Evelyn asked softly.
Sam turned to face his wife. "Evelyn, when I first met that little girl, she ran every time I came near her because she was so used to being beaten just for breathing too loudly. I saw her one time after such an occurrence and…" Sam lowered his head for a moment before continuing. "I just kept thinking 'that could be Lucy.'"
Evelyn gave her husband a comforting squeeze. "You're right, Sam. We'll take care of her for a while."
"Thank you, honey," Sam said, giving his wife a kiss.
At that moment Lucy bounced into the hallway. "Mommy! Daddy! Joey's crying!"
Evelyn gave Sam one last peck before allowing her daughter to lead her down the hallway. Sam watched them disappear into the master bedroom before he opened the door to Lucy's room. He pulled the rocking chair closer to the twin bed where Jira lied motionless.
"Ah, kid, I'm so sorry. I should've known that Raines would try something like this." Sam reached out and dabbed her head with a damp cloth. "Come on, kid, you've got to pull through!"
Jira tossed in her sleep and Sam tried to soothe her. "I hope Sydney found something," he muttered.
Office of the Chairman
The Centre
22:59
"Daddy, I told you I wasn't starting until tomorrow!" Miss Parker reminded her father.
"I know, Angel, but we're in the middle of a crisis. We need to find the missing subject and you are the only one I trust to do so. Please, Angel, do it for me," the Chairman persisted.
Miss Parker sighed with reluctance. "What do you want me to do?"
"The cameras must have been tampered with because there is no footage of the subject leaving the room," Mr. Parker explained as Miss Parker's stomach did a flip-flop, but she didn't think her father suspected her to be behind the camera sabotage. "When the cameras came back on, we saw Jarod in the missing subject's room. I want you to find out what he knows."
"Daddy, I don't think - " Miss Parker began, trying to dissuade her father.
"I knew I could count on you, Angel! I'll see you in a bit!" the Chairman interrupted. He picked up his phone and was barking orders to the person on the other end. Miss Parker sighed and walked out the door, praying that Jarod would not make this difficult.
Undisclosed Location
The Centre
April 14, 1994
02:21
The Centre was in chaos after learning of Jira's disappearance. As was Centre protocol, Jarod had been located immediately and pulled from the SIM lab in the middle of a simulation. He was "escorted" to an undisclosed location by no less than four Sweepers. This room was just large enough for a cot and one chair, the latter of which was occupied by a Sweeper. The other three were guarding the reinforced steel door. Jarod was sitting on the cot with his back to the wall and his arms wrapped around his knees, hugging them to his chest. Jarod and the Sweeper were engaged in an unofficial staring contest, each looking at the other with scorn.
But Jarod's thoughts dwelled with Jira. He wanted to know that she was safe and being cared for. Sam had seemed sincere, but Jarod wondered whether he could trust a Sweeper.
The Pretender's rumination was interrupted by the clanking of the steel door. Jarod looked up as a well-dressed Centre employee walked into the room.
"Miss Parker!" he cried. She was the last person he was expecting to see. "What are you -"
"Get up," she ordered coldly. Jarod looked at her in confusion and surprise. "I said get up!"
Jarod did as she asked and stood. His four Sweeper buddies quickly surrounded him, two behind and one on each side. Miss Parker nodded to one of them and he produced a pair of handcuffs. Miss Parker took them and told Jarod to hold out his hands.
"Look, I can cuff them in front or in the back where it would be more uncomfortable, but these handcuffs are going on," she said when he hesitated.
Jarod slowly and reluctantly raised his arms. Miss Parker snapped a cuff on each wrist and the Sweepers on either side of Jarod grabbed him roughly by the arms. The entourage walked down the corridor to the elevator which they all crowded into. Miss Parker pressed the button for the SL-3, a sublevel that Jarod had only been to once or twice. Thinking back to those occasions, Jarod began to panic. He turned to Miss Parker who seemed to examining the door with great intensity.
"Miss Parker, what is going on?" Jarod whispered.
"Just do what they tell you to and it will be over soon," she replied softly.
Jarod was slightly taken aback by her answer. He kept looking at her until the elevator had stopped and the Sweepers escorted him off the lift. The hallways was very dark with small lights along the floor illuminating the path to the two rooms at the end of the hall. One of these rooms was dark and the other was emanating an eerie blue light. Jarod's legs felt like lead as he was escorted to the lighted room. Upon entering the room, he began to have a panic attack. His breathing became fast and shallow, hands cold and sweaty, and his heart was racing. The Pretender began to struggle against his captors for all he was worth.
The room was empty save for a table in the shape of a T. This was a T-board, T standing for torture. The surface of the table was a grid of metal and there were shackles attached to ends of the table.
Miss Parker gave Jarod a pleading look which he returned tenfold in the midst of his struggling. It was then that Miss Parker knew that Jarod would not be making this any easier for her. She gave him a slight head shake, one that told him she would not or could not help him.
"Get him up there," she told the Sweepers, averting her gaze from Jarod's scathing glare.
Though he continued to struggle, the Sweepers each grabbed one of his appendages, ripped his shirt off, brought him to the table, and secured the shackles. Then Miss Parker left the room and entered the one next door. There a group of Tower and Triumvirate members were seated around a tinted window through which one could see Jarod. The sight of the Pretender's bare chest brought to mind the day that she took him to the Centre BioTract. She remembered the warm feeling of his soft skin across that sculpted body. Her father's voice brought her from this nostalgia.
"This is your test, Angel. As head of internal security, you must find out how the girl escaped. All of our evidence points to Jarod as the source of this knowledge," Mr. Parker informed. "Here is the list of questions we want you to ask the Pretender."
Miss Parker's throat was dry and swollen, so she simply nodded.
"The missing subject is an enormous asset to the Centre. It must be found promptly, Miss Parker," Mr. Raines wheezed from his seat.
"I understand," Miss Parker managed to squeeze out. She returned to the T-Board where Jarod was bound and quickly skimmed the questions she was to ask the Pretender. Her heart sank. They were not going to let him leave here unscathed, and that meant she wouldn't either. Sighing, Miss Parker set the paper down and approached Jarod. She walked around the table twice and watched the rise and fall of his chest quicken in pace.
"Where's the subject, Jarod?" Miss Parker asked suddenly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jarod replied quickly.
"Where is the subject?"
Jarod said nothing.
"Do you remember what I told you in the elevator?" Miss Parker said softly.
"Yes."
"Then tell me where the subject is!"
"I can't do that, Miss Parker," Jarod replied.
"Fine. Be difficult. But I can be a hard-ass too, Jarod," Miss Parker said, stepping back from the table.
A noise came from the table and Jarod felt three metal rods touching his back along his spinal column.
"Please, Miss Parker, you don't have to do this," Jarod said quietly, his eyes wide with fear.
"Dammit, Jarod! I don't want to do this, so just tell me what I want to know," she pleaded.
"Miss Parker, when I first saw that little girl, it was like I was suddenly eleven years old and looking at my best friend," Jarod said quickly.
"Little girl? The subject is a little girl?" Miss Parker muttered in astonishment.
She heard the door open behind her and turned to see her father silhouetted in the doorway. She unconsciously flinched at his formidable presence.
"You know what to do, Angel," he said stiffly.
"But Daddy…"
"The T-Board must go on. Continue, Angel," her father said even more forcefully.
Miss Parker turned to look at Jarod and then back at her father. The Chairman's eyes flashed with anger and Miss Parker took a step backwards.
"Do it now!" Mr. Parker ordered with finality.
Miss Parker jumped and her finger moved to the red button.
"Please, Miss Parker, don't do this," she heard Jarod say, but his voice seemed far away. From somewhere in her mind another voice echoed forward.
"This is a chance for you to prove yourself, Angel. Now, make your father proud."
Miss Parker pressed the button.
A surge of electricity spewed from the metal rods and Jarod's body shook, rattling the shackles that held his bruised body to the table. Miss Parker watched in horror as Jarod bit through his lip, trying not to scream. She was in a trance, oblivious to everything around her except Jarod, disbelieving that she was responsible for the agony of the man before her.
Pressing the button to terminate the machine, Miss Parker rushed out of the room and down the corridor. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew she had to get away from the man she had just tortured, the man she loved.
